Malay

Malay:

see MalayanMalayanor Malay, general term for one of a population of persons inhabiting SE Asia and the adjacent islands. The Malays vary greatly in physical appearance......Click the link for more information..

Malay

a peninsula in Southeast Asia, the southern part of the Indochinese peninsula. Bounded on the west by the Andaman Sea and the Malacca Strait and on the east by the South China Sea and the Gulf of Thailand. Length, approximately 1,300 km (from north to south); area, about 190,000 sq km. The Isthmus of Kra is its northern border. At times the peninsula is considered to extend north of Kra, up to the northern tip of the Gulf of Thailand. Within these boundaries the peninsula is 1,450 km long. Parts of Thailand and Malaysia are located on the Malay Peninsula; Burma meets it at the Isthmus of Kra.

The axial zone of the Malay Peninsula is formed by low and medium-height mountains. The maximum elevation is 2,190 m (Mt. Tahan). Mountains are divided into separate massifs with gently sloping dome-shaped summits and steep slopes. In the periphery areas there are hilly plains and lowlands; the lowlands are frequently swampy. The Malay Peninsula is part of the Burma-Malay zone of folded structures of Indochina. It is composed of geosynclinal strata that have been crumpled into folds of a submeridional direction: terrigenous from the Cambrian and late Precambrian, carbonate-terrigenous from the Ordovician and Silurian (Setul series), terrigenous from the Silurian-Carbon (Kanchanaburi series), and terrigenous-carbonate with vulcanites from the Middle Carbon-Permian (Raub series). Orogenic formations are represented by Triassic terrigenous deposits (Lipis series) with levels of acidic vulcanites and detrital rock of the Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous. Various depressions are filled with Cenozoic sediments. Mesozoic granite, with which numerous deposits of tin and tungsten are linked (the richest minerals of the Malay area), is widespread. Other known deposits include gold, copper, iron, molybdenum, lead, zinc, bauxite, and coal.

The climate is equatorial in the south and subequatorial, characterized by monsoons, in the north. Annual precipitation totals 1,000-2,000 mm over the plains and 4,000 mm in the mountains. The air temperature in plains areas remains at 25°C to 27°C throughout the year. About three-fourths of the Malay Peninsula is covered with thick tropical evergreen rain forests, in which there are figs, Dipterocarpaceae, Indian banyan, camphor trees, giant bamboos, and epiphytes. Along the coastal lowlands there are mangrove forests. The forests are inhabited by gibbons, lemurs, Malay tapirs, flying lemurs, Chiroptera (short-nosed bats, large flying foxes), rhinoceroses, and elephants.

Malay

the language of the Malays and several other peoples, including the inhabitants of the Jakarta region on Java and some Amboinese and Minahasa. It is the official language of Malaysia. Malay is spoken in Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia, chiefly on Sumatra and the Riau (Riouw) and Lingga archipelagoes, by more than 12.5 million people (1970, estimate). Malay belongs to the Indonesian group of Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian languages) and is divided into numerous dialects.

Old Malay, dating from the seventh to the tenth century A.D., is represented by epigraphs, primarily from southern Sumatra. Widely used in southern Sumatra as the language of trade, Malay became the language of culture and Islam in many parts of the Malay Archipelago beginning in the 15th century. Between the 15th and 19th centuries, an extensive literature was created in Malay (written in the Arabic script); the language of this literature is known as classical Malay. A Malay pidgin (bazaar Malay, low Malay) and creolized forms of Malay (Jakarta dialect, Amboinese Malay) also appeared. From the second half of the 19th century newspapers in Malay were published in the Dutch East Indies. The modern Indonesian language was formed as a result of the synthesis of “low” and “high” Malay, modeled on classical Malay. The modern Malay literary language of Malaysia, also known as Malaysian, differs from Indonesian chiefly in vocabulary but also to some extent in phonetics and certain morphological and syntactic features.

Here they spent nearly a month, during which time Professor Maxon was daily engaged in interviewing officials, English residents and a motley horde of Malays and Chinamen.

The result of her effort was the knowledge that on the second day they were to sail for the Pamarung Islands upon a small schooner which her father had purchased, with a crew of Malays and lascars, and von Horn, who had served in the American navy, in command.

Virginia took a keen delight in watching the Malays and lascars at their work, telling von Horn that she had to draw upon her imagination but little to picture herself a captive upon a pirate ship--the half naked men, the gaudy headdress, the earrings, and the fierce countenances of many of the crew furnishing only too realistically the necessary savage setting.

But the short of the story is this--the first part of which I suppose you know well enough--that you were with this ship at Sumatra; that there your captain was murdered by the Malays, with three of his men; and that you, or some of those that were on board with you, ran away with the ship, and are since turned pirates.

Najib did not officially endorse the march but elements within his ruling United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) encouraged organisers to stage the "Malay pride" rally in response to a big anti-government protest last month that called for Najib's resignation over the graft scandal.

At the same time, they have created a grand quid pro quo between other segments of the Malay population and the UMNO government: For fear of losing their advantages, beneficiaries of the preferences don't hold UMNO to account when it falls short.

All content on this website, including dictionary, thesaurus, literature, geography, and other reference data is for informational purposes only. This information should not be considered complete, up to date, and is not intended to be used in place of a visit, consultation, or advice of a legal, medical, or any other professional.